Born in London and raised in Melbourne, Thomas Headon got to fame by the end of 2022 with the highest charting EP of the year in the UK with the Victoria EP. Proven himself an undeniable indie-pop force by touring in the UK with sold-out shows and co-headlined North America with Alfie Templeman and supported both Sir Elton John and Sigrid. With over 100 Million global streams, Thomas’ music has reached the critically acclaimed Netflix show Heartstopper, with The Most Beautiful Thing, taken from his EP featured on the soundtrack alongside Del Water Gap, Arlo Parks and Olivia Dean. Signed to Warner Records, he just dropped his new EP Wasn’t A Fighting Kid, a 7-track project that represents a profound new era for the London-based artist. Taking six months offline to reset and reflect on the past five years of making music, Thomas found solitude in his flat in Hackney and started writing on his own again. This new EP takes the listener on a journey of heartbreak to self-acceptance, showcasing Thomas’ most honest and raw songwriting yet. Celebrating “Wasn’t A Fighting Kid,” Thomas Headon curated an exclusive playlist of his favorite tracks, which he listened to during the creative process of the EP.
Dijon – Scratching
Stephen basically introduced me to Dijon as we started making this EP, and I love the whole thing but this is by far my favourite song on that record. We became so obsessed with the film that accompanies it on Youtube and learning so much about how he recorded it. We did a lot of things different to how we normally record on this EP, that was definitely thanks to Dijon.
The 1975 – Wintering
I purely just love the production of this song. Everything sounds so beautifully and perfectly just shit. The vocal feels like it’s in another room, and so does the piano, the drums sound like they’ve been played with hands instead of sticks. It’s just so good. We tried to recreate the feeling of this on a few songs, it was super fun because it meant we just had an iPhone record a bunch of things from different places and just stuck them in songs untreated, so good.
Mk.Gee – Candy
I mean I’m pretty sure every musician in the world is listening to Mk.Gee right now and I completely understand why. The guitar tones in this song are phenomenal, and it was super inspiring to listen to this whole record while making my own EP. Just meant we experimented with things that we’ve never really done before, thank you for your help Mk.Gee.
Saya Gray – IF THERE’S NO SEAT IN THE SKY (WILL YOU FORGIVE ME???)
When I first got into writing again after not doing so for a while, I wrote a song called “no obama please don’t ban tiktok”. I was listening to so much Saya Gray for weeks before writing it, so it was super left and way different to anything else I’d done before. It didn’t end up making the EP (it purely just wasn’t good enough), but listening to her definitely helped shape my writing and made this EP what it is.
Dominic Fike – hi grace
I’m such a Dominic Fike fan, and this song is my favorite of the ’14 Minutes’ record he released. It’s just so different and the structure is all over the place, but that’s what makes it what it is. It feels like there’s different vocal processing on literally every part of the song and that’s just so freaking epic how do you even think to do that omg he’s a genius. Definitely inspired Stephen and me to do similar things on my EP.
Skrillex, Missy Elliot, Mr Oizo – RATATA
ok this is kinda unrelated but I feel like it’s not known enough how much I love Skrillex. every single person I tell is literally baffled and I don’t know how because he’s just so fucking good. This was my top song on Spotify last year, with Skrillex being like number 3 in my top 5 artists. This song is literally always on, whether I’m in the hills of Italy, in the gym, on a plane or just walking around. I don’t think I can go a day without listening to it at least once, so yeah it’s definitely highly influenced my EP (somehow).
Coldplay – Yellow
Coldplay is my favorite band, this song even gets a mention in my song “it’s all so beautiful (yet such a bitch)”. I saw them at the Glastonbury festival while I was taking some time off, surrounded by friends and it was one of my favorite experiences of my life so far. Hands down in my opinion one of the best songs of all time, it never leaves me and I will never leave it.
Gorillaz – Clint Eastwood
I wasn’t in the best place mentally for the past few months, and despite all the Skrillex and 1975 songs, sometimes it felt really good to travel around with Damon Albarn singing a really depressing song in my ear for a while. I really like this song, there’s something about it that feels a little sinister and quite dark, yet also using words like “happy” and “sunshine” feels like a really clever juxtaposition. I can’t definitively say it helped shape the EP, but it definitely soundtracked quite a few moments for me over the past year.
Beach House – Space Song
When making this EP, Stephen and I knew that we wanted the last song to basically be a reflection and kind of a moment of “where I am now”. Originally, he showed me this song and we tried to do something similar. I think it’s really beautiful and super coming-of-age-movie-like. Our final song “it’s all so beautiful (yet such a bitch)” took a much different direction, but this song really helped shape what it originally was in my opinion.
Charli XCX – Guess (featuring Billie Eilish)
This is on here because it’s basically been impossible to escape for the past 6 months, and deservingly because it’s just so fucking good. I was a little late to the Brat party, but once I was in the know then I was all for it. The Billie Eilish remix is even better in my opinion. While I wasn’t necessarily having a brat summer, I definitely was in spirit.
